Staff

Donna Leishman
BDes, MDes, PhD

Course Director Illustration

Tel: 01382 388320
Email: d.leishman@dundee.ac.uk
Illustration Media Suite, Level 1,Crawford Building,
DJCAD 13 Perth Road DD1 4HT

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Biography

DONNA LEISHMAN is a media artist and researcher and is based in Scotland. Her critical writings and presentations cover the social reception of digital media and the intersection of narrative with interactivity. Themes in the research include developing and exploring the role of the participant, issues around identity and closure and interrogating the aesthetic consequences of difficult interactions and dissonance. Leishman has presented for: ISEA RHUR (Germany), Digital Art Weeks Xi’an (China), CRUMB/Culture Lab (Newcastle), CultureNet/Capilanou University (Canada), IOCT De Montfort University (Leicester) FITC (Toronto), CHI 2011 (Vancouver) and ISEA 2011 (Istanbul). Her works have been featured in The New York Times, The List, The Herald, Create Online, Computer Arts, The Scotsman, The Guardian, Desktop Magazine (AUS), TIRWEB and Design Week.

Since 1999 her website 6amhoover.com has been the platform to experience her interactive projects. Her artworks have been presented in museums, galleries, conferences and festivals around the world including: UkinNY festival (NYC), Resistor Gallery (Toronto), Centre for Contemporary Art (Glasgow), TechnoPoetry Festival (Georgia Tech) DeCordova Museum (Boston) OFFF (Barcelona). Digital Arts & Culture conference (Melbourne), M.I.T (Boston), The Six Cities Festival (Glasgow) Designersblock – The Scottish Show (Milan/London) ELO Visionary Landscapes (Vancouver USA) and the Electronic Literature Collection Volume One.

She lecturers at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee. Leishman is the currently external examiner for the MRes in Digital Media at Newcastle University’s Culture Lab.

Website

www.6amhoover.com

REF Outputs

Title: Dissonance in Multi-Semiotic Landscapes in the Work Of Donna Leishman

Word count: 3,913 Number of pages: 12 Peer reviewed: Yes Client / commissioning body: HYPERRHIZ: NEW MEDIA CULTURES. Special Issue Editor: Dr
Dene Grigar Date commission completed / available to public: Summer 2009 URL: http://www.hyperrhiz.net/hyperrhiz06

Title: Will Internet Art Ever Grow Up, Research content: Essay in Cross-Media Communications: an Introduction to the Art of Creating Integrated Media Experiences by Drew Davidson.

The essay charts Net art within a media history and ecology exploring issues of permanence and stability.

Word count: 3000 Number of pages: 6 Peer reviewed: no Client / commissioning body: ETC Press/ Carnegie Mellon University. Date commission completed / available to public: Published in October 2010, originally written May 2008. ISBN: 978-0-557-28565-5

Research Projects

Title: Fluxing Reality

Theoretical position paper accepted in CHI 2011 conference peer reviewed workshop User in Flux hosted by the social computing group at Newcastle university. Paper is titled Fluxing Reality. I have confirmation that the proceedings will be made available online to the general public and at the conclusion of the session a research will be created poster be shown to other sections of the conference. A link to view all the ‘raw data’, and analysis will also be published online, live during the conference. The option for a special themed additional publication is in development but not confirmed at present

Media: short position paper and peer reviewed workshop.

ISBN/ISSN/URL/URI:  for the proceedings.

Word count: 2000-2500.

Peer reviewed: Yes

REF outcome: Possibly

Title: This Is Not A Game

Research content: Using the ongoing debate around the aesthetics of interaction, this presentation discusses my primary experiences of being trans-disciplinary and the associated positives and pitfalls. Exploring a mix of contemporary practice and theory, I presented an argument as to why journeying between disciplines can be productive.

Media: 30 min conference presentation/ paper.

Date: 2^nd July 2010

Word count: 30 min conference presentation

Peer reviewed: Yes by conference chair.

Client / commissioning body: Digital Art Weeks / EPFL http://www.digitalartweeks.ethz.ch/web

Venue: Xian Academy of Art.  Digital Art Weeks 2010 Symposium. China.

Process of commission: Invitation

Associated Catalogue/Publication: Documented in proceedings.

Title: Contemplating Flight  / Performance

Research content: The performance version of Contemplating Flight extends the role of the interactor into the visual landscape; s/he (in this case the author) becomes another protagonist. The multiple screens new content screens offer varying levels of additional narrative all of which help foster an open work for the audience. In the performance I play with the incidental sounds to create a variety of sound-scapes, I play with the subtle elements of the tree to create cascading patterns, nested within these numerous interactions I will also engage the birds, and move through the narrative towards a conclusion.

Client / commissioning body: New Media Scotland – as part of the third International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling (Napier University).

Date commission completed / available to public: Single event 31^st Oct 2010. Inspace, Crichton Street

Edinburgh.

Process of commission: Competition

Scale of project or dimensions of exhibits:  4 way digital projection. Interactive audio-visual digital media project with live performance.

Co-performers: Martin John Callanan, JR Carpenter & Jerome Fletcher, Maria Mencia, Netwurker Mez, Stanza and Christine Wilks.

Title: Pervade

Research content: 30 min presentation at the UPLAY workshop as part of ISEA2010 discussing the tension between reality / unreality in APR games and mediated society. 

Date: Dusseldorf Duisburg Germany, Aug 27^th – Aug 29^th 2010

Client / commissioning body: Digital Art Weeks / EPFL http://www.digitalartweeks.ethz.ch/web

Venue: Xian Academy of Art.  Digital Art Weeks 2010 Symposium. China.

Process of commission: Invitation from workshop chair Prof. Margarete Jahrmann (Zurich University of the Arts) 

May 2009. Invited ‘expert reader’ for Neil McLeod’s PhD submission Narrative in the Margins. Others in the pre viva thesis feedback group are Russell Mills / RCA, Dave Davis /Kingston and Johanna Drucker / Stanford.